November 8, 2004

RenewAmerica staff

On August 8th — just 86 days before the 2004 election — Alan Keyes accepted the nomination of the Illinois Republican Party to run for the U.S. Senate against the Democratic Party's rising media star, Barack Obama.

The idea was first proposed to Keyes only a week earlier by a handful of Illinois conservative leaders. Even after the nomination was ultimately extended by the state GOP central committee, Keyes took several days to consider the invitation — so unusual was the offer, and so unique the situation. He ultimately determined that compelling national concerns superseded customary "federalism" issues, and he decided to come to the aid of Republicans in the "Land of Lincoln."

Keyes was especially motivated by Obama's extremely liberal voting record, and he felt that Obama — who as a state senator had refused three times to support stronger laws that would protect infants born alive in botched abortions — should not be anointed without a fight.

Keyes' message

Within days, Keyes changed his residence from Maryland to Calumet City, an historic community on the edge of Lake Michigan, and began campaigning vigorously in a state known for its deep-seated political corruption.

For the entire campaign, Keyes focused on two overriding issues: abortion, and the threat posed to traditional marriage by same-sex marriage. All else, Keyes repeatedly argued — including jobs, health care, education, crime, infrastructure needs, social security, etc. — hinged on society's response to these two destructive influences.

The Chicago Democratic Machine — with the help of a liberal media already lined up behind Obama before Keyes entered the race — responded with a campaign of distortion that twisted Keyes' eloquent, erudite arguments into "inflammatory" sound bites.

For almost three months, the Illinois media had a field day intentionally turning the dignified, passionate Keyes into a caricature of his true self. Extreme headlines would appear without evidence to support their sensational claims; perverted paraphrases would be published in lieu of Keyes' clear actual statements; Keyes himself would be identified only as a "talk show host," rather than a "former Assistant Secretary of State"; and outrageous exaggerations would permeate nearly all reporting.

The rare exceptions came from a small number of conservative columnists in the state.

To say the Illinois media were inept, unprofessional, or "biased" would only partially describe the extent of the misreporting. Abundant evidence exists of outright lying by a media intent on controlling the political process and manipulating the public mind.

What do you call it when, in the first debate between Keyes and Obama, Keyes says that perfect military intelligence is not necessary before the U.S. is justified in taking action in defense of its sovereignty — and within an hour, the AP disseminates a worldwide article that reports "Keyes said America must feel free to use military force against other countries even if it is not certain they pose dangers to America."

Instantly, by the stroke of an Illinois AP writer's keyboard, a responsible statement by the circumspect Ambassador Keyes is turned into the paranoia of a madman. Such distortion was no "accident." The same AP writer — and his cohorts — circulated similar serious distortions of Keyes' positions on other occasions.

Or what do you call it when Keyes defends the national GOP platform on same-sex marriage, and is then asked if his definitions would apply to all gays, including the Vice President's daughter, and he says "of course, by definition" — intending no offense to the Vice President or his daughter. The Illinois AP and other media then proceed to report that Keyes "trashes Mary Cheney," "lashes out at the Vice President's daughter," "criticizes Cheney daughter," "insults Mary Cheney," etc. The truth — according to the transcript and recording — is that Keyes did nothing of the sort that was widely and unfairly reported in an effort to discredit him.

This kind of mischief was not merely occasional or exceptional. It was the rule throughout the election — due to the hostile behavior of a pro-Obama media.

Criticism from GOP insiders

No sooner did the media start its outlandish campaign to caricature Ambassador Keyes than some in the Illinois GOP began to question, as a result, the party's selection of Keyes. The state chair — who is openly pro-gay — ridiculed and disparaged Keyes. So did a former Illinois governor. Some of those who had lured Keyes to the state were also quoted as regretting the reported "antics" of Keyes, antics the media created literally out of nothing.

Only those closest to Keyes and fully informed of his actual statements knew the extent of the malicious media accounts.

Meanwhile, Keyes plodded along as always in communicating his moral-based message, undeterred by the false reporting. So undeterred was he that he said at a major rally:

"I wouldn't mind at all if, by the time this election got down to the wire, it were a clear referendum on two things: do we want to kill our babies; and do we want marriage to be based on respecting the obligation to have and care for those babies for the sake of our nation's future?"

Such single-minded moral emphasis drew additional criticism from some GOP leaders — who insisted that Illinois voters were more interested in jobs, the economy, and health care than moral concerns.

This, despite the fact that, in his various appearances and in his literature, Keyes did in fact definitively address "bread and butter issues" — but usually in the context of moral issues that he considered foundational. By the time the media altered these statements, of course, even some of Alan's most loyal admirers wondered what his positions were on "practical matters."

The debates

All this perversion and distortion by the media came to an abrupt halt, at least momentarily, during each of the three public debates held between Keyes and Obama. To any objective observer, Keyes dismantled Obama's shallow, liberal talking points with spontaneous logic that far outshined the "rising star" of the Democratic Party. And it was not just style and skill. On substance, Keyes destroyed the empty rhetoric of Obama's government-dependent socialism.

Those relative few voters who were fortunate to see or hear the debates came away with an entirely different perspective of the eloquent Keyes than the media had carefully conjured. Keyes picked up at least an additional 10 percent of the vote directly because of the debates, if the polls are to be believed — polls that had Keyes with only 17 percent before the debates, with Keyes ending up with 27 percent of the vote at election time.

Knowing the bounce the debates could give Keyes, the state's media found a way to deprive voters of the chance to witness firsthand his persuasive power: they neglected to publicize the debates in advance, and then they misreported Keyes' statements afterward.

Arguably, had the general population witnessed the debates for themselves, the outcome of the race could well have been very different — so impressive was Keyes head-to-head against the media star Barack Obama.

The third and final debate, especially, was a resounding win for Keyes against the out-classed, out-finessed, out-argued Obama.

The polls

Ensuring that Keyes had no chance from the outset of the race were a series of self-fulfilling polls conducted by the Chicago media and their associates.

The first of these was released by the Chicago Tribune just a few days after Keyes entered the race in early August, and the poll claimed that Keyes had only 24 percent of public support. When asked to produce evidence for its conclusions, the Trib refused to release the poll's basis, according to an Aug. 31 article in the Illinois Leader.

Having prejudiced the public with its first poll, the Tribune and its affiliates then proceeded to release one or two subsequent polls that showed similar results. As the media slandering of Keyes continued to build in addition, subsequent polls showed him continually losing ground — so that the "final" poll of the Tribune gave Keyes only 17 percent just before the election.

Missing in the polling — intentionally, it is obvious — was any follow-up polling of the impact of Keyes' performance during the three debates. The Illinois media thus irresponsibly misled the public by refusing to conduct any polling after the debates. Only old polls were cited just before the election, and yet these out-of-date polls were presented as though they were still relevant.

How do you spell dishonest?

It's no wonder that Keyes consistently criticized the media not only for its false, creative reporting — but for polls promoted by the same media for the purpose of misleading the public.

The aftermath

Although Ambassador Keyes gathered only 27 percent of the actual vote, that number translates into over 1.3 million Illinois supporters — a significant number considering that it represents individuals who not only appreciated Keyes' moral positions and personal integrity, but overcame the misinformation widely disseminated by the Illinois media! That's a remarkable achievement, for both Dr. Keyes and those courageous enough to vote for him.

Just as significant — immediately after the election, the NATIONAL MEDIA vindicated Keyes' unyielding emphasis on MORAL VALUES, in very plain terms. No sooner had it become clear that President Bush defeated John Kerry than NBC, ABC, and PBS began reporting that the main concern on voters' minds this election, nationwide, was moral values.

Said NBC's Tim Russert: "The [voters'] connection with [Bush] on values and faith was more important to them than jobs and the war in Iraq."

Mark Halperin of ABC said that the primary thing on voters' minds — across the entire country — was moral issues. When asked by Peter Jennings what he meant by "moral issues," Halperin said, "Partial birth abortion and gay marriage."

That evening, PBS's Jim Lehrer held a panel discussion on the importance of moral issues in the outcome of the election, and a minister pointed out that the media had no grasp of the depth of the church-going public's values and priorities, and as a result completely misread voters.

All this has relevance for Illinois. Bear in mind that the national media's post-election analysis of moral values centered on America's heartland — the Midwest. Prominent among heartland states, of course, is Illinois (even though it wasn't singled out for discussion, because of its aberrant voting pattern this election).

The issue therefore becomes: why did Illinois soundly reject President Bush, and even more decisively reject Alan Keyes — if in fact moral and religious values were uppermost in Midwestern Americans' minds. What made Illinois voters different?

Absolutely nothing made Illinois voters different! The people of Illinois are no less "American," patriotic, religious, moral, or mainstream than their counterparts in surrounding states. Alan Keyes — and his supporters — rightly believed that Illinoisans would support Alan's moral message as much as any other people in the heartland.

So why didn't Illinoisans elect Keyes?

Because they never were permitted to hear Keyes' message undiluted and unperverted by the state's powerful liberal media. They were deprived by the media — in utter violation of the public trust — of the chance to get to know Keyes for themselves, without intentional distortion.

Good, moral people can be trusted to vote intelligently when they have true information. Withhold the truth from them, and they have nothing to go on but false media reporting, and they will err significantly as a result.

It's fair to say that the reason Keyes' moral message was rejected by the people of Illinois had nothing to do with the message itself — or with the messenger. It had everything to do with the filter through which the public was granted access to that message: the incredibly corrupt, shamelessly dishonest Illinois media.

As a result of this disturbing fact, Chicago's Cook County stands out above all other counties in the U.S. as disproportionately alien to bedrock American values in a 3-dimensional graph posted by CBS. Are the people of Cook County really that uninformed and liberal? Perhaps. But if you took away the control of their minds by the Chicago media, it would be interesting to see how they would respond to important truth of the sort that Alan Keyes articulated throughout his campaign. It's not fair to cynically generalize about so many people when they plainly have little access to correct information.

Given the unperverted truth, they may well prove to be as reasonable, and responsible, as their neighbors in the rest of mainstream America.

This poses a definite challenge to those supporters of Alan Keyes who would undertake to clean up the rampant corruption in the state that gave our nation the great champion of truth and social justice, Abraham Lincoln. Little progress will be made in turning things around unless the state's media are held accountable to the very people they profess to serve.

The key

The key to all this, of course, is a revitalized, principles-driven, no-nonsense state GOP.

Some observers believe that Ambassador Keyes has already positively transformed the Illinois Republican Party by virtue of his moral-message campaign. If true — realizing that 1.3 million independent-minded, moral conservatives is no small force to contend with — then the process of reclaiming Illinois from control by self-serving special interests and power brokers is already well underway.

By that measure, the Keyes for Senate campaign was definitely a success.

When you consider the limited time frame in which Alan Keyes brought about this re-direction, the accomplishment was all the more remarkable.